/ 


THE 


Educational  System 


—  OP  — 


G-ERMANY. 


BY 

CHARLES  KENDALL  ADAMS,  LL.  D., 


Professor  of  History  in  the  University  of  Michigan. 


♦ 


This  paper,  which  was  prepared  as  a  part  of  the  Author’s  course  of  lectures  at  the  Uni- 
versity  of  Michigan,  on  “  The  Rise  of  Prussia,”  and  a  portion  of  which  was  read  at  the  thirty- 
first  annual  meeting  of  the  Michigan  State  Teachers*  Association,  December  29,  1881,  is  pub¬ 
lished  in  full  in  accordance  with  the  special  request  of  the  Association. 


LANSING: 

W  S.  GEORGE  &  CO.,  STATE  PRINTERS  AND  BINDERS. 

1882. 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


BY  PROF.  CHARLES  KEHDALL  ADAMS,  LL.  D. 


At  the  beginning  of  this  century,  Germany  was  not  a  nation :  it  was  only  a 
people.  The  oppressions  which  the  inhabitants  had  endured  at  the  hands  of 
tyrannical  rulers  had  shaken  their  allegiance  even  to  the  fatherland.  When 
the  French  Revolution  broke  out,  therefore,  Germany  looked  on  with  divided 
sympathies.  The  rulers  were  filled  with  horror;  but  the  people  were  not  with¬ 
out  secret  rejoicings  that  an  effort  had  been  made  to  break  the  yoke  of  oppres¬ 
sion.  This  divided  sympathy  was  the  chief  cause  of  that  paralysis  which 
seemed  to  seize  the  soldiers  of  Germany  on  the  first  approach  of  the  armies  of 
France.  The  troops  who  fled  before  the  inferior  forces  of  the  French  at  Jena 
and  at  Auerstsedt,  and  the  troops  who  surrendered  to  inferior  numbers  the 
strongholds  of  Silesia,  were  none  other  than  the  grandsons  of  the  heroes  who 
had  driven  the  French  from  the  field  at  Rossbach,  and  the  grandfathers  of 
those  who  put  to  rout  the  same  gallant  standards  in  the  murderous  ravines  at 
Gravelotte.  There  was  no  heart  in  the  contest  against  Napoleon;  for,  per¬ 
vading  all  classes  of  the  people,  there  was  an  impression,  vague  and  false 
indeed,  but  still  not  without  strength,  that  the  victories  of  Napoleon  might 
break  their  chains,  while  his  overthrow  would  be  likely  to  rivet  them  stronger 
than  ever.  It  is,  therefore,  not  so  strange  as  at  the  time  it  appeared,  that 
Napoleon,  wherever  he  went,  crushed  everything  before  him ;  for  the  troops 
whose  country  he  invaded  seemed  scarcely  to  require  a  decent  excuse  for  doing 
so  in  order  to  surrender  at  once  their  fortresses  and  their  destinies  into  his 
hands.  There  are  few  more  humiliating  spectacles  in  modern  history  than  the 
abject  and  helpless  condition  of  Prussia  when  Frederick  William  the  Third,  at 
Tilset,  having  lost  all,  was  obliged  to  receive  a  half  of  his  kingdom  and  an 
army  of  forty  thousand  men  at  the  hand  of  his  contemptuous  conqueror. 

The  means  by  which  Prussia  arose  from  the  degradation  of  180?  to  the 
strength  of  1870,  are  not  to  be  explained  by  the  discussion  of  a  single  subject. 
The  nation  was  fortunate,  even  at  the  moment  of  despair,  in  having  at  com¬ 
mand  a  number  of  great  men.  Seharnhorst  and  Gneisenau  remodeled  the 
army.  Stein  created  a  municipal  system  which  secured  excellent  local  govern¬ 
ment.  Methods  of  general  administration  were  fundamentally  changed  and 


4 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


reformed.  But  of  all  the  many  influences  that  were  set  to  work  in  those  busy 
years  which  followed  the  peace  of  Tilset,  there  was  none  other  that  equaled 
in  importance  and  far-reaching  results  the  reform  in  matters  of  education.  Of 
the  system  that  was  developed  from  the  labors  of  these  years  it  is  my  purpose 
to  speak  to-day. 

My  theme  is  necessarily  limited.  I  design  to  indicate  the  way  in  which  the 
schools  are  organized,  the  methods  by  which  they  are  controlled,  the  spirit  in 
which  they  are  supported  and  upheld.  I  have  to  deal  not  so  much  with  the 
relations  of  teachers  and  pupils  as  with  the  relations  of  the  schools  and  the 
people  at  large. 

In  the  year  1794,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two  Johann  Gottlieb  Fichte  was  called 
to  a  professorship  at  the  University  of  Jena.  He  had  already  published  several 
small  works,  among  others  one  that  was  of  so  much  philosophical  merit  as  to 
be  attributed  to  Kant.  One  of  Fichte’s  earliest  courses  of  lectures  at  Jena 
was  given  to  an  audience  of  students  from  all  departments  of  the  University, 
and  was  on  the  subject,  “The  Vocation  of  the  Scholar.”  The  course  attracted 
not  only  the  profound  attention  of  the  students  and  professors  of  the  Univer¬ 
sity,  but  also  the  admiration  and  approval  of  Schiller  and  Goethe.  The  design 
of  Fichte  in  this  course  was  to  impress  upon  his  hearers  his  sense  of  the  part  of 
the  scholar  in  the  welfare  of  the  state.  In  the  winter  of  1807-8,  this  same 
author  delivered  a  still  more  remarkable  course  of  lectures  at  Berlin,  which  he 
called  “Reden  an  die  Deutsche  Nation” — “Addresses  to  the  German  Nation.” 
These  addresses,  published  in  April  of  1808,  were  a  powerful  appeal  for  Ger¬ 
man  unity  on  all  political  and  social  questions ;  and  no  person  can  read  them, 
even  at  this  day,  without  being  greatly  impressed  with  the  solemn  responsibility 
under  which  Fichte  felt  that  he  was  speaking.  The  object  of  the  course  was 
an  elaborate  and  systematic  enquiry  whether  there  existed  any  efficient  and 
comprehensive  remedy  for  the  evils  with  which  Germany  was  then  afflicted. 
And  the  lecturer  found  the  remedy  where  Turgot,  long  before  in  France,  had 
looked  for  deliverance  from  the  selfishness  and  abuses  of  the  old  regime , 
namely,  in  a  grand  system  of  a  national  education.  He  planted  himself  firmly 
on  this  ground :  Education  as  hitherto  conducted  by  the  church  has  aimed 
only  at  securing  for  men  happiness  in  another  life ;  this  is  not  enough,  inas¬ 
much  as  men  need  also  to  be  taught  how  to  bear  themselves  in  the  present  life 
so  as  to  do  their  duty  to  the  state,  to  others,  and  to  themselves.  He  declares 
that  he  is  sure  that  a  system  of  national  education  will  work  so  powerfully  upon 
the  people  of  the  nation  that  in  a  few  years  they  will  be  completely  changed ; 
and  he  explains  at  great  length  what  should  be  the  nature  of  this  system,  dwell¬ 
ing  largely  upon  the  importance  of  instilling  a  love  of  duty  for  its  own  sake 
rather  than  for  reward.  The  method  which  should  be  adopted  was  that  of 
Pestalozzi.  Of  the  fourteen  lectures,  three  are  given  to  an  exposition  of  this 
system,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  it  should  be  applied.  In  order  that  we 
may  judge  of  the  solemn  weight  to  be  attached  to  Fichte’s  words,  I  quote  a  few 
sentences : 

“A  nation  that  is  capable,  if  it  were  only  in  its  highest  representatives  and 
leaders,  of  fixing  its  eyes  firmly  on  the  vision  from  the  spiritual  world,  Inde¬ 
pendence,  and  is,  like  our  early  ancestors,  possessed  with  the  love  of  it,  will  as¬ 
suredly  prevail  over  a  nation  that,  like  the  armies  of  Rome,  is  used  only  as  the 
tool  of  foreign  aggressiveness,  and  for  the  subjugation  of  independent  nations; 
for  the  reason  that  the  former  has  everything  to  lose  while  the  latter  has  only 
something  to  gain.” 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


5 


On  the  real  condition  of  Prussia,  and  what  ought  to  be  done  for  permanent 
relief,  he  spoke  as  follows:  “That  we  can  no  longer  resist  openly  has  been 
already  assumed  as  evident;  it  is  universally  admitted.  Having,  then,  lost 
the  first  object  of  life,  what  remains  for  us  to  do?  Our  constitutions  will  be 
made  for  us  ;  our  treaties  and  the  use  of  our  military  forces  will  be  prescribed 
to  us;  a  code  will  be  given  us;  even  the  right  of  judicial  trial  and  decision, 
and  the  exercise  of  it,  will  be  at  times  taken  away;  for  the  present  we  shall  be 
relieved  from  all  these  cares.  Education  alone  has  been  overlooked  ;  if  we 
want  an  occupation,  let  us  take  to  this.  There  we  may  expect  to  be  left  undis¬ 
turbed.  I  hope, — perhaps  I  deceive  myself,  but,  as  it  is  only  for  this  hope 
that  I  care  to  live,  I  cannot  part  with  it, — I  hope  to  convince  some  Germans,] 
and  bring  them  to  see,  that  nothing  but  education  can  rescue  us  from  all  the 
miseries  that  overwhelm  us.  I  count  especially  on  our  being  made  more  dis¬ 
posed  to  observation  and  reflection  by  our  need.  Foreign  nations  have  other 
comforts  and  resources;  it  is  not  likely  that  they  will  give  any  attention  to 
such  a  thought,  supposing  it  to  occur  to  them,  or  give  any  credit  to  it  ;  on  the 
contrary ,  I  hope  it  will  prove  a  rich  source  of  amusement  to  the  readers  of  their 
journals ,  if  they  ever  learn  that  anyone  promises  such  great  results  from  educa¬ 
tion.” 

Having  thus  elaborated  his  doctrine,  Fichte  addresses  himself  to  separate 
classes.  He  reproves  business  men  for  their  contempt  of  culture.  He  warns 
thinkers  and  writers  not  to  complain  so  much  of  the  shallowness  of  the  age; 
“for,”  asks  he,  “  what  class  is  it  that  has  educated  this  shallow  generation? 
The  most  evident  cause  of  the  dullness  of  the  age  is  that  it  has  read  itself 
stupid  in  the  books  you  have  written.”  To  the  princes  he  commends  his  v 
scheme  of  education.  “Let  your  counselors  consider  whether  they  find  it 
sufficient,  or  whether  they  know  anything  better;  only  let  it  be  equally  thor¬ 
ough-going.”  Finally,  he  closes  his  series  of  addresses  with  an  appeal  to  the 
young  men  before  him  in  a  passage  that  is  almost  pathetic  from  the  solemnity  v 
of  its  words. 

“On  you  it  depends,”  says  the  orator,  “whether  you  will  be  the  end  and 
the  last  of  a  race  worthy  of  little  respect,  and  likely  to  be  despised,  no  doubt, 
even  above  its  deserts  by  after  time;  in  reading  whose  history,  later  genera¬ 
tions,  if,  in  the  barbarism  which  will  begin,  there  can  be  such  a  thing  as  a 
history,  will  be  glad  when  the  end  of  them  arrives,  and  will  recognize  the 
justice  of  destiny;  or  whether  you  will  be  the  beginning  and  germ  of  a  new, 
time,  that  shall  be  glorious  beyond  all  your  imaginations,  and  from  which 
posterity  will  reckon  the  years  of  their  welfare.  Consider  that  yon  are  the 
last  in  whose  hands  this  great  renovation  is  placed.” 

This  course  of  lectures  and  the  volume  embodying  them  are  of  the  highest 
importance  in  the  history  of  German  unity.  It  maybe  saicl  that  the  book  per¬ 
formed  two  important  services.  In  the  first  place  it  was  the  beginning  of  an  ■ 
anti-Napoleonic  revolution  in  Germany, — perhaps  I  might  say  in  Europe ;  and 
in  the  second  place,  what  we  have  more  to  do  with  here,  it  inspired  Stein  with 
the  ideas  that  were  now  to  be  embodied  in  the  educational  reform.  In  the 
administrative  changes  proposed  by  Stein,  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  was 
divided  into  several  departments;  one  of  these  was  a  Department  of  Educa¬ 
tion.  To  the  head  of  this  new  branch  of  the  government  was  called  Wilhelm 
yon  Humboldt.  To  Stein  we  are  to  give  the  credit  of  the  conception;  hufTTd 
Humboldt  is  due  the  credit  of  organizing  and  developing  the  system. 

In  the  time  of  Frederick  William  I,  the  supervision  of  education  had  been 
entrusted  to  a  General  Directorv.  This  had  had  charge  of  religious  as  well  as  of  / 


6 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GEKMANY. 


educational  affairs.  But  in  1787  matters  of  an  ecclesiastical  nature  were  sepa¬ 
rated  from  those  pertaining  to  the  schools,  and  the  latter  were  placed  under 
the  superintendence  of  a  General  Bureau  of  Education, — Ober-Schulcollegiu7n% 
This  bureau,  or  board,  had  no  direct  and  official  connection  with  the  other 
branches  of  the  government,  and  did  its  work  in  a  drowsy  and  inefficient  man¬ 
ner.  It  was  the  work  of  Stein,  then,  to  break  up  this  board  and  create  an 
educational  department  in  the  office  of  home  affairs,  or,  as  we  should  say, 
Office  of  the  Interior.  The  importance  of  this  educational  work  was  soon  seen 
to  be  so  considerable,  that,  in  1817,  it  was  raised  into  an  independent  Min¬ 
isterial  Department.  The  two  councilors  associated  with  Humboldt  were  now 
increased  in  number  to  eight.  The  state  was  divided  into  provinces,  and  these 
provinces  again  into  districts.  Over  each  district  was  established  a  consistory 
for  the  supervision  of  public  instruction.  Such  was  the  external  organization, 
as  then  made,  and  as  retained  substantially  to  the  present  day. 

But  it  is  not  so  much  to  the  new  organization  as  to  the  men  placed  at  its 
head,  that  Prussia  owes  her  great  educational  reform.  Humboldt  united  in 
himself  a  rare  combination  of  ripe  scholarship  and  organizing  power.  He 
had  studied  antiquity  with  F.  A.  Wolf,  the  prince  of  scholars  in  his  day  and 
the  father  of  modern  philology.  The  early  part  of  his  life,  indeed,  had  been 
given  up  to  an  unusual  quietism.  He  wrote  to  Wolf :  “Everyday  the  study  of 
the  Greeks  enchains  me  more.  I  may  say  with  truth  that  no  study,  of  the 
many  studies  I  have  taken  up,  has  given  me  such  satisfaction;  and  I  may  add 
that  the  very  shadow  of  a  wish  to  lead  a  life  of  business  and  activity  has  never 
so  completely  left  me  as  since  I  have  grown  somewhat  more  familiar  with 
antiquity.”  Humboldt  then  traveled  much,  became  interested  in  languages, 
studied  Basque,  studied  art  at  Borne,  translated  /Eschylus,  wrote  and  published 
original  poetry,  and  then  turned  his  attention  to  questions  of  finance  and  pub¬ 
lic  economy.  In  the  quiet  comprehensiveness  of  his  studies  there  was  very 
much  in  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt  like  that  which  we  find  in  Goethe.  Perhaps, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  great  poet,  Humboldt  had  a  more  absorbing 
belief  in  culture  than  any  other  man  of  his  time. 

But  even  this  was  not  all.  His  great  exemplar  and  inspirer  had  been  not 
only  the  greatest  philologist  of  his  age,  but  also  the  greatest  teacher  and  edu¬ 
cationist  of  his  time.  While  the  greatest  scholars  of  his  day,  like  Boeckh  and 
Bekker,  acknowledged  that  they  owed  everything  to  his  teaching,  Wolf  had 
been  theorizing  and  writing  upon  education,  and  had  finally  become  perhaps 
the  most  eminent  authority  to  whom  the  advocates  of  classical  education  can 
appeal.  Formed  by  such  teachers  and  surrounded  by  such  influences,  Hum¬ 
boldt  took  the  portfolio  of  Education.  This  was  in  April,  1809;  and  from 
April,  1809,  to  April,  1810,  Prussian  history  belongs  to  Wilhelm  von  Hum¬ 
boldt  and  his  educational  reform. 

But  before  I  proceed  to  describe  the  system  established  by  Humboldt,  I  must 
call  your  attention  to  one  other  element  of  the  problem.  I  refer  to  the 
altogether  exceptional  relations,  in  Germany,  at  this  time,  of  literature  and 
culture  to  politics.  It  is  extraordinary  that  the  very  period  of  the  great  politi¬ 
cal  disasters  is  the  Golden  Age  of  German  literature.  There  had  been,  for 
reasons  which  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand,  but  which  I  cannot  stop  to 
describe,  a  most  extraordinary  intellectual  movement,  a  great  outpouring  of 
genius, — not  as  the  inspiration  of  political  liberty?  but  in  a  country  and  at  a 
time  when  political  liberty  was  unknown. 

This  fact  is  presented  by  Gustav  Freytag  in  a  passage  quite  worthy  of  quota¬ 
tion :  “While  thunder  and  storm,”  writes  he,  “roared  so  appallingly  in 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


7 


France,  and  blew  the  foam  of  the  approaching  tide  every  year  more  wildly  over 
the  German  land,  the  educated  class  hung  with  eye  and  heart  on  a  small 
principality  in  the  middle  of  Germany,  where  the  great  poets  thought  and  sang 
as  if  in  the  profoundest  peace,  driving  back  dark  presentiments  with  verse  and 
prose.  King  and  queen  guillotined — Reineke  Fuchs;  Robespierre,  with  the 
Reign  of  Terror — Letters  on  the  Aesthetical  Education  of  Man ;  Battles  of 
Lodi  and  Areola — Wilhelm  Meister,  the  Horen  and  the  Nenien ;  Belgium 
annexed — Hermann  and  Dorothea;  Switzerland  and  the  States  of  the  Church 
annexed — Wallenstein;  the  Left  Bank  annexed — the  Natural  Daughter  and 
the  Maid  of  Orleans;  Occupation  of  Hanover — the  Bride  of  Messina;  Napoleon 
Emperor — Wilhelm  Tell.”  The  striking  antithesis  here  presented  shows  how 
completely  literature  and  culture  had  been  divorced  from  political  life  and 
influence.  So  complete  and  striking  was  this  separation,  that  a  writer  of  the 
time,  Wilhelm  Perthes,  consoles  himself  for  the  disasters  of  Germany  by 
reflecting  that  they  were  likely  to  bring  an  end  to  “that  fool’s  paradise,  that 
is  made  up  of  nothing  more  substantial  than  literature.” 

But  while  there  were  some  to  take  this  superficial  view,  it  was  the  great  good 
fortune  of  the  state  to  possess  a  group  of  men  of  whom  Fichte,  Schleiermacher, 
and  Humboldt  were  the  most  distinguished  representatives,  and  “in  whom,” 
as  has  well  been  said,  “culture  returns  to  politics  the  honor  that  has  been 
done  to  it.”  In  view  of  this  fact  alone  can  we  understand  the  full  force  of 
Seeley’s  remark,  that  “In  Humboldt  and  his  great  achievements  of  1809  and 
1810,  meet  and  are  reconciled  the  two  views  of  life  which  found  their  most 
extreme  representatives  in  Goethe  and  Stein.”  It  was  with  such  an  end  in 
view  that  Humboldt,  with  the  assistance  of  Schleiermacher,  Wolf,  and  Silvern, 
began  his  work. 

This  work  was  reared  upon  the  solid  basis  of  a  fundamental  law,  from  which 
I  quote — a  law  promulgated  in  1794  and  modified  somewhat  in  1850 : 

“Schools  and  universities  are  state  institutions,  having  for  their  object  the 
instruction  of  youth  in  useful  information  and  scientific  knowledge.” 

“Such  establishments  are  to  be  instituted  only  with  the  state’s  previous 
knowledge  and  consent.” 

“All  public  schools  and  public  establishments  of  education  are  under  the 
state’s  supervision,  and  must  at  all  times  submit  themselves  to  its  examina¬ 
tions  and  inspections.” 

“Whenever  the  appointment  of  teachers  is  not  by  virtue  of  the  foundation 
or  of  a  special  privilege  vested  in  certain  persons  or  corporations,  it  belongs  to 
the  state.” 

“The  teachers  in  the  gymnasia  and  other  higher  schools  have  the  charac¬ 
ter  of  state  functionaries.” 

“For  the  education  of  the  young,  sufficient  provision  is  to  be  made  by  means 
of  public  schools.” 

“Every  one  is  free  to  impart  instruction  and  to  found  and  to  conduct  estab¬ 
lishments  for  instruction  when  he  has  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  higher 
state  authorities  that  he  has  the  moral,  scientific,  and  technical  qualifications 
requisite.” 

“All  public  and  private  establishments  are  under  the  supervision  of  author¬ 
ities  named  by  the  state.” 

These  provisions  of  the  fundamental  law  (Allgemeines  Landrecht)  show  that 
the  central  authority  of  the  state  has  entire  supervision  of  matters  of  educa¬ 
tion.  We  are  not,  however,  to  infer  from  this  that  Prussia  shows  a  grasping 
and  centralizing  spirit;  on  the  contrary,  it  has  always  been  the  policy  of  the 


s 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


government  to  make  the  administration  of  educational  affairs  as  local  as  it 
possibly  can,  but  at  the  same  time  it  takes  care  that  local  authorities  shall 
always  be  subordinate  to  those  in  general  control.  In  this  way  it  provides  (to 
use  the  phrase  of  Matthew  Arnold)  ‘That  education  shall  not  be  left  to  the 
chapter  of  accidents.’ ’ 

Now,  the  supreme  excellence  and  efficiency  of  the  Prussian  system  of  educa¬ 
tion  as  reared  by  Humboldt  and  his  colleagues,  depend  upon  four  elements. 
The  temple  rests  upon  four  pillars,  all  of  which  are  essential  to  the  stability  of 
the  structure,  and  all  of  which  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  briefly  describe. 

I.  The  organization  of  the  controlling  authorities. 

I  can  think  of  nothing  in  our  own  government  that  so  well  conveys  to  the 
mind  a  notion  of  that  organization  as  the  organization  of  our  federal  courts. 

As  I  have  already  said,  the  Ministry  of  Education  consists  of  eight  persons 
selected  by  the  government  to  preside  over  educational  affairs.  Prussia  was 
divided  into  eight  provinces  that  would  correspond  with  the  circuits  of  our 
United  States  courts.  In  each  of  these  eight  provinces  (usually  in  the  chief 
town)  was  created  what  was  known  as  the  “Provincial  School  Board.”  These 
eight  provinces  were  again  subdivided  into  twenty-six  districts,  and  in  each 
district  was  to  sit  what  is  known  as  a  “  District  Board.”  The  state’s  relations 
with  the  secondary  schools  are  through  the  provincial  boards,  while  its  rela¬ 
tions  with  the  primary  schools  are  by  means  of  the  district  boards.  These 
boards  consist  of  from  five  to  eight  persons  each,  a  part  of  whom  are  commonly 
Roman  Catholics,  and  a  part  Protestants.  These  boards  are  in  constant 
■/  communication  with  the  Minister  of  Education  at  Berlin. 

Besides  all  these,  in  1810  the  government  established  three  Scientific  Depu¬ 
tations;  one  at  Berlin,  one  at  Konigsberg,  and  one  at  Breslau,  to  examine 
teachers  for  the  secondary  schools,  and  to  advise  the  government  in  all 
important  matters.  You  may  judge  of  the  sort  of  persons  that  Prussia  called 
into  these  commissions  when  I  name  as  members  Wolf,  Schleiermacher, 
Ancillon,  Silvern,  and  Nicolovius; — Silvern  and  Nicolovius  being  members  of 
the  Ministry.  To  this  day  the  schools  of  Prussia  feel  the  benefits  of  the 
superior  management  thus  early  established.  A  few  years  later  the  “  Scien-  * 
v  tific  Deputations”  were  found  to  be  insufficient,  and  they  were  superseded 
by  seven  bodies  known  as  “Examination  Commissioners.”  These  seven  were 
located  in  the  seven  university  towns  of  Prussia.  Each  commission  was  made 
up  of  seven  persons,  representing  the  seven  studies  on  which  teachers  are 
"examined,  viz.:  Greek,  Latin,  history,  mathematics,  pedagogy,  religion, 
natural  science.  These  commissions,  usually  made  up  of  members  of  the 
university  faculties,  give  all  certificates  of  fitness  to  teach.  From  persons 
having  such  certificates  the  boards  appoint  all  teachers.  University  professors 
/  are  appointed  on  the  recommendation  of  the  university  senate  by  the  Ministry 
of  Education. 

II.  The  second  pillar  on  which  the  superstructure  rests  is  the  system  of  nor¬ 
mal  schools,  or  schools  for  the  training  of  teachers. 

The  art  of  teaching  has  doubtless  been  brought  to  greater  perfection  in  Ger¬ 
many  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  This  perfection  has  been  reached,  for 
the  most  part,  through  the  influence  of  the  normal  schools, —  schools,  the 
object  of  which  is,  not  to  do  work  that  can  well  be  done  in  other  schools,  but, 
by  a  careful  and  systematic  course  of  training,  to  teach  how  to  teach.  Teach¬ 
ing  as  an  art  may  be  said  to  have  come  into  the  world  with  Pestalozzi.  Of 
this  singular  man  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say,  as  he  said  of  himself,  that  he 
“turned  quite  around  the  car  of  education  and  set  it  in  a  new  direction.”  In 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


9 


liis  day  he  was  deemed  an  “unhandy,  unpractical,  dreamy  theorist,”  and  yet, 
as  has  well  been  said,  “he  wrought  as  veritable  a  reform  in  matters  of  education 
as  did  Luther  in  matters  of  religion.” 

At  first  sight  Pestalozzi  must  have  seemed  to  have  every  disqualification  for  a 
teacher.  He  spoke,  read,  wrote,  ciphered  badly ;  as  he  himself  says,  he  had  “an 
unrivaled  incapacity  for  governing;”  he  had  no  comprehensive  and  exact 
knowledge  of  either  men  or  things,  and  he  was  never  a  teacher  until  he  was 
fifty-two  years  of  age.  It  was  with  such  an  outfit,  so  far  as  could  be  seen,  that 
Pestalozzi,  at  the  age  of  fifty-two,  took  charge  of  a  school  of  eighty  children 
in  a  tumble-down  Ursuline  convent  at  Stanz.  Into  a  room  twenty -four  feet 
square  were  crowded  “'these  eighty  wretched  children,  noisy,  dirty,  diseased, 
ignorant,  and  with  the  manners  and  habits  of  barbarians.”  Such  was  Pesta¬ 
lozzi’ s  school  at  Stanz.  Surely  an  unpromising  field  and  an  unpromising  pros¬ 
pect.  And  yet,  to  adopt  the  words  of  his  biographer,  “through  the  force  of 
his  all-conquering  love,  the  nobility  of  his  heart,  the  restless  energy  of  his  enthu¬ 
siasm,  his  firm  grasp  of  a  few  first  principles,  his  eloquent  exposition  of  them 
in  words,  his  resolute  manifestation  of  them  in  deeds,  he  stands  forth  among 
educational  reformers  as  the  man  whose  influence  on  education  is  wider,  deeper, 
and  more  penetrating  than  that  of  all  the  rest, — the  prophet  and  the  sover¬ 
eign  of  the  domain  in  which  he  lived  and  labored.” 

And  here  is  Pestalozzi’s  own  picture  of  the  manner  in  which  he  wrought  his 
work, — a  picture  which  embraces  most  perfectly  the  principles  that  were  after¬ 
wards  to  be  embodied  in  the  German  school  system : 

“I  was  obliged,”  he  says,  “unceasingly  to  be  everything  to  my  children. 
I  was  alone  with  them  from  morning  till  night.  It  was  from  my  hand  that  they 
received  whatever  could  be  of  service  to  their  bodies  and  minds.  All  succor, 
all  consolation,  all  instruction  came  to  them  immediately  from  myself.  Their 
hands  were  in  my  hand,  my  eyes  were  fixed  on  theirs,  my  smiles  encountered 
theirs,  my  soup  was  their  soup,  my  drink  was  their  drink.  I  had  around  me 
neither  family,  friends,  nor  servants;  I  had  only  them.  I  was  with  them  when 
they  were  in  health,  by  their  side  when  they  were  ill.  I  slept  in  the  midst  of 
them.  I  was  the  last  to  go  to  bed,  the  first  to  arise  in  the  morning.  When 
we  were  in  bed,  I  used  to  pray  with  them  and  talk  to  them  till  they  went 
to  sleep.  They  wished  me  to  do  so.” 

It  was  in  this  way,  by  his  boundless  love  and  devotion,  that  he  first  won  their 
hearts  and  then  inspired  them  with  right  desires.  Here  is  the  way  in  which 
this  great  but  simple-hearted  man  describes  his  method:  “I  seldom  rebuked 
them.  When  the  children  were  perfectly  still,  so  that  you  might  hear  a  pin 
drop,  I  said  to  them,  ‘Don’t  you  feel  yourselves  more  reasonable  and  more  hap¬ 
py  now  than  when  you  are  making  a  disorderly  noise?’  When  they  clung 
around  my  neck  and  called  me  their  father,  I  would  say,  ‘Children,  could  you 
deceive  your  father?  Could  you,  after  embracing  me  thus,  do  behind  my  back 
what  you  know  I  disapprove  of?’  ” 

These  extracts  are  enough  to  show  that  in  his  system  the  car  was  turned 
completely  around ;  that,  instead  of  the  old  methods  of  force  and  constraint, 
it  was  the  moral  sensibilities  that  were  appealed  to  and  made  the  motive  of 
good  acts. 

The  pertinence  of  all  this  to  the  subject  before  us  is  in  the  fact  that  Fichte 
had  recommended  at  length  the  methods  of  Pestalozzi  as  the  ones  to  be 
adopted  in  Prussia;  and  accordingly  Humboldt  sent  for  a  pupil  of  the  famous 
teacher  to  establish  in  Prussia  a  normal  school  for  the  training  of  teachers  in 
the  Pestalozzian  method.  C.  A.  Zeller  was  summoned  to  Konigsberg  in  1809 


10 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


to  found  the  first  normal  school.  The  new  work  was  begun  with  the  blessing 
of  Pestalozzi,  who,  in  the  journal  he  had  established,  cheered  fallen  Prussia, 
and  said  to  one  of  the  ministers  of  education  that  he  and  his  friends  were  the 
salt  and  leaven  of  the  land,  and  would  soon  leaven  the  whole  mass.” 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  new  method  did  not  meet  with  obstacles. 
On  the  contrary  the  opposition  was  exceedingly  strong ;  so  strong,  indeed,  that 
at  one  time  Zeller  was  on  the  point  of  giving  up  in  despair.  But  just  at  this 
moment  a  fortunate  circumstance  occurred.  The  King,  having  heard  of  the 
complaints  and  difficulties,  determined  to  visit  the  school.  Accordingly  one 
morning  at  eight  o’clock,  without  giving  any  notice,  the  King,  Queen  Louisa, 
and  the  Educational  Ministry  walked  into  Zeller’s  school.  It  was  no  mere 
formal  or  common  visit,  for  the  King  and  Queen  remained  until  one  o’clock, 
examining  everything  with  the  utmost  minuteness.  As  a  result,  the  govern¬ 
ment  was,  once  for  all,  brought  over  to  the  reformer’s  side.  Normal  schools 
on  this  model  were  multiplied  rapidly,  until,  in  IS4G,  the  number  of  them 
in  Prussia  was  no  less  than  fifty. 

III.  The  third  pillar  on  which  the  system  rests  is  the  character  of  the  sec¬ 
ondary  or  intermediate  schools — the  gymnasia  and  real-schulen.  The  reform 
in  these  that  was  instituted  by  Humboldt  was  thorough  and  highly  success¬ 
ful.  His  coadjutor  in  the  ministry,  Silvern,  had  this  part  of  the  work  espe¬ 
cially  in  charge ;  and  it  was  to  the  details  of  this  new  organization  that  his 
friend  and  teacher,  Wolf,  was  called.  We  are,  therefore,  to  understand  that 
it  was  through  the  influence  of  this  prince  of  philologists  that,  in  the  new 
arrangement,  the  classics  preserved  the  traditional  position  of  honor.  In  this 
connection  it  is  enough  to  say  that  the  gymnasia  were  at  this  time  established 
on  the  basis  on  which  they  have  ever  since  rested.  In  1863  the  number  of 
secondary  schools  ranking  as  gymnasia  was  two  hundred  and  fifty-five,  of  which 
one  hundred  and  seventy-two  were  classical  schools,  or  gymnasia  proper.  Of 
their  importance  in  the  national  development  we  learn  from  the  simple  fact 
that  in  these  secondary  schools,  in  1865,  the  number  of  scholars  in  Prussia  was 
74,162;  while  in  the  same  year,  according  to  Matthew  Arnold,  the  number  in 
England  in  the  same  grade  of  schools  was  only  15,880. 

IV.  But  it  was  on  the  fourth  pillar  of  the  new  system  that  Humboldt  left 
his  deepest  impress,  namely,  on  the  department  of  highest  education. 

Among  all  the  losses  that  befell  Prussia  by  the  peace  of  Tilset,  perhaps  none 
was  felt  more  bitterly  than  the  loss  of  the  University  of  Halle,  where  Wolf  had 
made  his  fame.  Immediately  after  the  blow  had  fallen,  two  of  the  professors 
went  to  Memel  to  lay  before  the  King  a  proposal  to  establish  a  university  at 
Berlin.  On  the  4th  of  September  of  this  same  year,  1807,  an  order  came  from 
the  Cabinet  declaring  it  to  be  one  of  the  most  important  objects  to  compensate 
the  State  for  the  loss  of  Halle.  But  two  universities,  it  was  declared,  were 
now  left  to  Prussia,  those  at  Konigsberg  and  Frankfort-on-the-Oder.  Konigs- 
berg  was  too  remote,  and  Frankfort  was  too  poor,  to  supply  the  place  of  Halle. 
It  is  a  curious  indication  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Prussian  government 
regarded  the  service  of  its  teachers,  that,  in  this  very  order  of  the  Cabinet, 
assurances  were  given  that  arrangements  would  be  made  by  which  the  serv¬ 
ices  of  the  expelled  professors  from  Halle  would  not  be  lost  to  the  country. 

While  Stein  was  engaged  upon  his  reforms,  this  subject  did  not  pass  beyond 
the  period  of  discussion.  But  there  is  one  phase  of  that  discussion  which  is 
interesting  as  showing  what  they  expected  of  the  university,  and  as  provoking 
in  an  American  some  important  reflections.  Was  it  desirable  that  a  university 
should  be  planted  in  a  great  capital  and  close  to  the  abode  of  the  government? 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


11 


Some  sort  of  tranquil  retirement  has  been  associated  with  the  idea  of  a 
university,  and  the  temptations  of  a  great  capital  were  likely  to  be  dangerous 
to  the  morals  of  the  students.  We  are  told  that,  in  view  of  this  prospect,  Stein 
was  at  first  vehemently  opposed  to  the  establishment  of  the  university  at 
Berlin,  but  that,  after  listening  to  Wolf’s  arguments,  he  passed  over  to  the 
other  side  of  the  question  and  supported  the  choice  of  Berlin  with  equal  energy. 
Humboldt,  and  even  his  brother  Alexander,  for  a  time  believed  that  “the 
shadow  of  the  capitol  would  blight  the  intellectual  vitality  alike  of  teachers  and 
of  learners.”  And  what  was  the  argument  of  Wolf  that  finally  prevailed  in 
opposition  to  these  views?  It  was  that,  in  the  judgment  of  the  ministry,  “  the 
mischievous  influence  of  the  government  on  the  university  would  be  less 
considerable  than  the  beneficial  influence  of  the  university  on  the  government.” 
In  the  report  of  Humboldt,  made  on  May  12,  1809,  the  position  is  stated  in 
these  words:  “What  can  be  more  desirable  than  a  constant  intercourse 
between  the  heads  of  science  and  the  principal  officials !  How  intellectually 
refreshing,  thought-awakening,  and  naturally  elevating,  is  such  intercourse 
likely  to  prove  to  the  latter  !”  And  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  founding 
of  the  University,  it  was  declared  that  “this  anticipation,  has  been  abundantly 
fulfilled.” 

On  the  16th  of  August  following  Humboldt’s  report,  an  order  of  Cabinet  was 
announced  founding  the  University.  The  King  set  apart  the  royal  palace  of 
Prince  Henry  as  its  abode,  and  assigned  for  it  an  annual  gift,  from  the  first, 
of  150,000  thalers.  Under  the  system  I  have  endeavored  to  point  out,  it  was, 
of  course,  the  work  of  Humboldt  and  his  fellow  ministers  to  select  the  pro¬ 
fessors.  He  at  once  occupied  himself  in  negotiations  with  men  of  learning  in 
all  parts  of  Germany.  And  what  faculties  were  brought  together !  Fichte 
for  philosophy ;  Schleiermacher,  l)e  Wette,  and  Marheineke  for  theology ; 
Savigny  and  Schmalz  for  jurisprudence;  Friedliinder,  Kohlrausch,  Hufeland, 
and  Reil  for  medicine;  Niebuhr  and  Ruhs  for  history;  Wolf,  Buttman, 
Boeckh,  and  Dindorf  for  antiquity;  Tralles  and  Gauss  for  mathematics. 

The  University  was  opened  at  Michaelmas,  1810;  and,  in  the  following  year, 
the  first  work  published  from  the  new  University,  the  first  volume  of  Niebuhr’s 
Roman  History,  formed  an  epoch  in  modern  historical  research.  This  was 
followed  by  the  works  of  Fichte,  Savigny,  Schleiermacher,  Raumer,  Hoffman, 
Boeckh,  Hegel,  Schelling,  Ranke,  and  scores  of  others,  forming  a  galaxy  of 
names  such  as  no  other  country  or  century  can  show.  In  view  of  such  an 
array  of  genius,  brought  together  at  such  a  time,  we  are  justified  in  saying  that 
the  founding  of  the  University  of  Berlin  was  not  the  least  memorable  of  the 
great  works  of  that  age  of  reforms.  With  such  a  beginning,  it  can  hardly  be 
considered  strange  that,  within  three-quarters  of  a  century,  it  has  grown  to 
such  power  and  influence  that  it  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the  foremost 
university  in  the  world.  From  all  nationalities,  in  both  hemispheres,  congre¬ 
gate  annually  not  less  than  about  four  thousand  students  to  receive  instruction 
and  inspiration  from  teachers  whose  fame  is  known  wherever  scholarship  is 
respected  and  admired.  Nor  was  the  spirit  shown  in  the  founding  of  this 
University  an  exceptional  one.  As  the  King  vacated  his  palace  in  Berlin  for 
the  University  there,  so  in  1818,  after  Waterloo  had  given  back  to  Germany  the 
left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  he  consecrated  the  electoral  palace  at  Bonn  to  the 
same  noble  use. 

Such,  then,  was  the  system.  But  machinery  without  motive  power  is  help¬ 
less.  In  Germany  the  propelling  force  was  provided  by  general  law.  Every 
professional  man,  whether  lawyer  or  clergyman  or  teacher,  before  entering 


12 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


upon  the  work  of  bis  profession,  was  obliged  to  pass  an  examination  that  pre¬ 
supposed  a  liberal  education.  No  lawyer  could  collect  a  fee  for  advice  or  ser¬ 
vice  unless  he  had  previously  received  the  training  of  a  university.  No  physi¬ 
cian  could  write  a  prescription  until  he  had  received  the  same  liberal  outfit. 
And,  most  important  of  all,  no  person  could  teach  in  a  gymnasium,  or  swing  a 
ferule  in  a  district  school,  until  he  had  first  received  the  training  of  a  profes¬ 
sional  teacher  either  in  a  university  or  in  one  of  the  state  normal  schools.  It 
will  be  seen  that  here  was  the  force  that  put  life  into  the  system, — that  made 
the  schools  pulsate  with  all  the  potencies  of  national  greatness. 

Having  studied  the  system,  and  the  legal  requirements  that  form  the  motive 
power,  we  are  now  in  condition  to  inspect,  with  a  little  more  care,  the  individ¬ 
ual  parts.  Let  us  look  especially  at  the  normal  schools,  the  secondary 
schools,  and  the  universities.  But  while  we  examine  each  of  these  parts  of 
the  system,  let  us  not  forget  its  organic  connection  with  the  others.  The  sys¬ 
tem  is  a  means  to  an  end.  It  is  framed  to  accomplish  a  certain  result.  It  is 
like  an  army  made  up  of  different  divisions  and  corps;  and  we  must  keep  in 
mind  the  fact  that  the  best  results  are  reached  only  when  the  respective  parts 
reach  their  destination  in  such  order  as  to  cooperate  perfectly  with  the  others. 
It  is  in  the  massing  of  forces  that  a  general  shows  his  greatness  or  his  weak¬ 
ness.  And  so  it  may  be  said  that  the  Prussian  system  of  education  reveals  its 
true  excellence,  not  so  much  in  the  character  of  any  one  part,  as  in  the  unity 
of  the  whole,  and  in  the  perfection  with  which  each  part  is  fitted  to  do  the  par¬ 
ticular  work  assigned  it. 

What  we  might  call  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  Prussian  system,  what  the 
German  perhaps  would,  call  the  Begriff,  may  be  stated  in  this  way:  Whatever 
j.  you  want  a  man  for,  there  is  no  way  in  which  you  can  make  so  much  of  him 
or  get  so  much  out  of  him  as  by  training  him.  Society  needs  everything  that 
1 .  can  be  got  out  of  its  people.  The  state  therefore  should  furnish  the  most  sys- 
,  tematic  means  of  training  for  different  purposes ;  and,  secondly,  it  should 
x  make  this  training  compulsory.  In  order  to  furnish  the  means  of  training  it 
must  provide  the  most  skillful  teachers.  In  order  that  training  may  be  com- 
.pulsory  it  must  allow  no  person  to  practice  a  trade  or  a  profession  until  he  has 
been  properly  trained  for  the  work.  While  in  America  we  have  always  placed 
emphasis  upon  liberty  in  the  choice  of  work,  in  Prussia  emphasis  is  placed  upon 
protection  from  the  imposition  of  bad  work. 

But  how  are  skillful  teachers  secured?  The  answer  is,  by  making  teaching 
^  a  profession  and  by  elevating  it  to  the  rank  of  an  honorable  one.  With  us 
teaching  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  a  profession.  Some  of  the  best  teaching  done 
•  in  our  secondary  schools  is  by  persons  who  are  simply  filling  the  chasm  between 
their  undergraduate  and  their  professional  studies.  There  is  reason  to  believe 
that  if  all  our  teaching  were  equal  to  that  done  by  this  class  of  persons,  some 
of  it  would  be  very  much  less  faulty  than  it  is.  That  is  not  saying  that  it  would 
not  still  be  poor.  A  Prussian  looks  upon  such  a  system  as  ours  much  as  we 
would  look  upon  a  custom  that  should  drive  students  for  two  or  three  years 
into  the  practice  of  law,  or  medicine,  or  theology,  under  similar  transient 
inducements.  The  Prussian  method,  on  the  contrary,  will  allow  no  man  to 
,  teach  until  he  has  fitted  himself  for  teaching  as  a  profession.  Nor  is  this  a 
"L  mere  nominal  condition.  The  teacher  enters  upon  teaching  for  life.  He  is  no 
more  likely  to  abandon  it  for  another  profession  than  the  physician  is  likely  to 
abandon  medicine.  After  he  is  once  appointed  to  a  place  he  cannot  be 
3  removed  but  for  cause.  He  has  a  house  and  garden  furnished  him  as  the 
church  furnishes  a  rectory  or  parsonage;  and  when  he  dies  or  is  disabled  his 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OB"  GERMANY. 


13 


family  receives  a  pension  for  the  support  and  protection  of  old  age.  Such  is 
the  career  to  which  the  teacher  looks  forward. 

But  how  is  he  prepared  for  his  work?  This  brings  us  to  an  examination  of 
the  normal  schools. 

In  the  first  place  it  should  he  said  that  these  are  as  strictly  national  institu¬ 
tions  as  are  our  academies  at  West  Point  and  Annapolis.  They  strive  to  make 
teachers  just  as  strictly  as  our  military  academy  strives  to  make  soldiers.  Of 
these  normal  schools  there  are  seven  or  eight  in  each  province;  and  admission 
to  them  is  secured  just  as  at  West  Point,  as  the  result  of  competitive  examina¬ 
tion.  The  examination  is  severe  and  searching.  The  number  of  applicants  is 
always  much  greater  than  the  number  to  be  admitted ;  and  competition  at  the 
entrance  examinations  is  very  great.  No  person  is  admitted  even  to  examina¬ 
tion  until  he  has  produced  a  physician’s  certificate  of  health  and  of  freedom 
from  all  chronic  complaints.  Every  one  is  debarred  who  has  a  weak  voice  or 
any  physical  defect  or  infirmity.  These  provisions  make  it  certain  that  none 
but  picked  men  shall  become  teachers  in  Prussia.  Of  applicants  examined 
enough  of  those  standing  highest  are  admitted  to  fill  the  vacancies  in  the  nor¬ 
mal  school.  The  period  of  residence  in  the  school  is  never  less  than  two  years y* 
nor  more  than  three.  The  branches  pursued  are  chiefly  a  continuation  of  those 
previously  studied  at  the  primary  and  superior  schools.  Great  attention  is  also 
paid  to  drawing,  writing,  and  the  natural  sciences.  Every  teacher  in  a  Prus¬ 
sian  school  must  write  a  good  hand,  must  be  skillful  in  drawing,  and  must 
know  enough  to  teach  well  the  elements  of  botany  and  zoology.  Besides  these 
all  students  in  the  normal  schools  must  learn  the  violin,  the  organ,  and  the 
piano.  Mr.  Kay  relates  that  he  heard  three  organs,  three  pianos,  and  a  hun¬ 
dred  violins  in  one  normal  school.  As  each  teacher  is  to  have  a  garden  fur¬ 
nished  him,  he  is  taught  to  make  good  use  of  it,  by  careful  instruction  in 
gardening,  horticulture,  and  floriculture.  The  age  at  which  pupils  are  admitted 
to  the  normal  schools  is  eighteen.  The  cadets,  for  such  they  may  be  called, 
are  often  sons  of  peasants;  often  persons  who  have  been  fitted  to  enter  the 
normal  school  by  the  village  minister,  or  by  some  other  interested  person. 
The  students  live  in  the  college  as  a  dormitory,  and  are  supported  chiefly  by 
the  state,  as  are  our  cadets  at  West  Point.  The  only  expenses  of  the  students 
are  for  their  clothing  and  the  payment  of  about  fifteen  dollars  a  year.  All 
else  is  borne  by  the  state.  Such,  then,  are  the  provisions  by  which  Prussia 
strives  to  fit  its  teachers  for  their  work. 

At  the  final  examinations  students  receive  a  diploma  marked  first,  second,  or 
third  class,  as  the  acquirements  of  the  students  justify.  Only  holders  of 
diplomas  of  the  first  class  are  eligible  to  appointment  at  once.  Students  of 
the  second  and  third  grades  are  put  on  probation  of  one  and  two  years  respect¬ 
ively,  after  which  they  may  be  re-examined  for  a  place  in  the  first  class.  They 
sometimes  return  three  or  four  times  before  they  are  successful. 

Such  was  the  provision  made  in  1810  by  Humboldt.  In  1826  it  was  still 
further  determined  that  even  those  holding  diplomas  of  the  first  class  should  * 
subject  themselves  to  one  year’s  probation  before  they  could  be  permanently 
employed.  It  is  not  absolutely  essential  that  a  person,  to  be  a  teacher,  should 
pass  through  a  normal  school;  but  it  is  essential  that  such  person  pass  an 
equivalent  examination  before  the  examining  commission.  As  this  is  exceed¬ 
ingly  difficult,  it  is,  in  fact,  almost  never  accomplished.  Without  the  diploma 
of  the  first  class  from  a  normal  school,  or  a  certificate  of  having  passed  an 
equivalent  examination,  then,  no  person  in  Prussia  is  allowed  to  teach.  It  is 
even  made  a  misdemeanor  to  employ  any  other  person. 


14 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


There  is  one  further  provision  that  is  worthy  of  note.  It  is,  that,  although 
the  proper  authorities  of  a  district  may  select  from  those  having  the  requisite 
acquirements  a  teacher  for  their  school,  when  he  has  once  been  installed,  they 
cannot  remove  him.  Such  removal  can  be  brought  about  only  by  the  pro¬ 
vincial  board.  The  object  of  this  provision  is  easily  seen.  The  government 
says:  The  teacher  has  made  a  long  study  of  pedagogy,  and  he  has  greater 
ability  to  judge  of  the  art  of  teaching  and  managing  scholars  than  those  can 
have  who  have  had  no  such  training.  We  will  no  more  allow  the  people  of  a 
district  on  their  whim  to  turn  out  a  teacher  whom  we  have  educated,  than  we 
will  allow  a  military  company  to  turn  out  a  captain.  If  it  can  be  made  to 
appear  that  there  are  good  reasons  why  he  should  be  turned  out,  those  reasons 
must  be  presented  to  the  provincial  board,  since  they  are  so  far  removed  as  to 
be  free  from  prejudice.  Thus  you  see  that  the  teacher  not  only  has  an 
excellent  outfit,  but  in  the  exercise  of  his  vocation  he  is  practically  independent. 

I  said  that  the  teacher  is  furnished  in  each  district  with  a  house  and  garden. 
These  are  usually  joined  with  the  school  building.  Rather,  perhaps, 
it  should  be  said  that  the  school-room  is  usually  in  the  house  of  the  teacher. 
The  consequence  of  this  provision  is  that  the  teacher  is  practically  a  permanent 
officer  of  the  village  or  district,  and  is  so  situated  as  to  have  a  vast  influence 
on  the  life  and  development  of  all  of  his  pupils.  The  affectionate  and 
tender  relations  established  between  teacher  and  pupils  in  Prussia  are  the 
subject  of  constant  remark  by  those  who  have  inspected  the  workings  of  the 
common  schools.  It  is  in  such  schools,  and  by  such  teachers,  that  the 
Prussian  children  are  taught.  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  it  becomes 
us,  in  view  of  such  facts,  to  be  modest  in  what  we  have  to  say  of  our  own 
primary  schools. 

Suppose  that  a  boy  is  destined  for  one  of  the  professions,  say  theology,  law, 
medicine,  or  higher  instruction.  Between  the  age  of  eight  and  twelve  he 
leaves  the  primary  school  and  goes  to  a  gymnasium,  or  to  a  real-schule.  Insti¬ 
tutions  of  this  grade  constitute  the  famous  secondary  schools  of  Prussia.  As 
I  have  already  intimated,  the  number  of  these  schools  in  Prussia  is  nearly 
three  hundred.  Of  these,  about  two-thirds  are  gymnasia,  or  classical  schools, 
and  one-third  real-schulen,  in  which  the  study  of  Greek  is  not  pursued. 

In  all  of  these  schools  the  curriculum  of  study  is  the  same,  and  is  deter¬ 
mined  by  the  government, — that  is  to  say,  by  the  Educational  Bureau,  of 
which  I  have  already  spoken.  The  gymnasia  are  regarded  as  government 
schools,  though  the  students  are  not  supported  by  the  government,  as  in  the 
normal  schools.  The  course  of  study  embraces  six  classes,  running  from 
sexta  to  prima.  The  work  of  several  of  these  classes  requires  two  years, — 
prima,  always  two  years.  The  length  of  the  course  in  the  gymnasium,  there¬ 
fore,  is  from  eight  to  ten  years, — say  while  the  scholar  is  from  nine  to  eighteen 
or  nineteen  years  of  age. 

From  what  has  been  said  of  thoroughness  in  the  outfit  of  teachers  for  the 
primary  schools,  we  should  expect  to  meet  a  similar  adaptability  of  means  to 
ends  in  the  gymnasia.  And  we  are  not  to  be  disappointed.  The  teachers  are 
all  teachers  by  profession.  They  are  all  appointed  by  the  Educational  Bureau 
of  the  Province,  and  from  those  who  have  passed  the  requisite  examinations. 

These  examinations  ( ‘  ‘Die  Priif ungen  der  Oandidaten  des  holier en  Scliulamts ’ ’ ) 
are  an  important  part  of  the  great  reform  instituted  by  Humboldt.  The  rules 
for  conducting  the  examinations  have  been  modified  slightly  from  time  to  time  ; 
but  those  now  in  force  were  adopted  as  early  as  1831.  The  examinations  are 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


15 


conducted  by  the  High  Examining  Commissioners  of  whom  I  have  already 
spoken. 

The  candidate  who  presents  himself  for  examination  must  first  hand  in  a 
school  certificate  of  fitness  for  the  university,  and  then  a  certificate  of  three 
years’  attendance  at  university  lectures.  Accompanying  this  must  be  a  cur¬ 
riculum  vitce ,  written  in  Latin  if  the  candidate  is  an  applicant  for  a  position 
in  a  gymnasium;  in  French  if  an  applicant  for  a  reai-schule.  The  examina¬ 
tion,  if  successful,  results  in  a  certificate  conferring  the  right  to  teach, — facultas 
docencli ;  and  this  is  conditional  or  unconditional, — hedingte  or  unbedingte. 
The  “hedingte  facultas'”  allows  the  holder  to  teach  only  the  lower  classes  of 
the  gymnasia  and  real-schools,  while  the  “unbedingte  facultas ”  confers  the 
right  to  teach  some  one  subject  in  secunda  or  prima.  From  the  persons  that 
have  passed  this  examination  the  Provincial  School  Board  selects  the  teachers 
in  the  gymnasia.  Every  teacher  is  required  to  know  French  and  something  of 
English,  besides  Latin.  Teachers  in  the  real-schools  are  not  required  to  know 
Greek.  The  Probejahr ,  or  year  of  probation,  is  also  insisted  on  in  the  gym¬ 
nasia.  These  requirements  show  us  that  boys  fitting  for  the  university  are 
taught  by  none  except  such  as  have,  in  the  first  place,  received  a  liberal  uni¬ 
versity  education  in  addition  to  the  preliminary  education  procured  at  the  gym¬ 
nasium  ;  and  have,  in  the  second  place,  passed  a  special  examination  before 
the  Examining  Commission.  Into  the  hands  of  such  a  corps  of  teachers,  then, 
our  boy  of  eight  or  ten  falls  when  he  enters  the  gymnasium. 

We  sometimes  hear  complaints  that  our  scholars  in  America  are  kept  at  too 
hard  work.  Such  complaints  are  doubtless  sometimes  well  founded,  but  gen¬ 
erally  they  are  as  rudiculous  as  they  are  unworthy  of  our  physical  and  mental 
stamina.  The  student  of  the  German  gymnasia  is  kept  in  school  in  summer 
from  ?  to  12  o’clock,  in  winter  from  8  to  12,  and  during  all  seasons  of  the  year 
from  2  to  4.  The  number  of  his  exercises  per  week  is  never  less  than  thirty, 
and,  during  half  of  the  course,  is  thirty-five.  These,  it  is  true,  are  not  all  what 
we  call  “recitation  work,”  but  they  are  all  work  under  the  immediate  direction 
of  a  teacher.  This  curriculum  includes,  besides  the  heavier  studies,  book¬ 
keeping,  reading,  penmanship,  gymnastics,  and  music.  The  students  in  the  \ 
hands  of  such  teachers,  then,  have  six  lessons  a  day  five  days  in  the  week,  and 
five  lessons  on  Saturday. 

The  results  of  this  kind  of  work  seldom  fail  to  awaken  astonishment  in  the 
American  who  visits  the  gymnasium.  Of  the  various  interesting  things  I  saw 
in  the  German  schools,  there  were  two  that  surprised  me  more  than  all  the 
others.  The  one  was  the  performance  of  one  of  the  oratorios  of  Handel,  from 
beginning  to  end,  by  the  scholars  of  one  of  the  gymnasia  in  Leipzig.  The 
choruses,  rendered  by  two  hundred  voices  from  the  gymnasium,  in  the  very 
church  where  Bach  had  won  his  fame,  seemed  like  a  chorus  of  angels.  The 
principal  solos  were  rendered  by  a  boy  of  thirteen,  with  a  power,  an  accuracy, 
and  a  sweetness  that  brought  tears  to  many  an  eye  in  that  vast  congregation. 
Not  more  than  a  month  later,  the  boys  of  the  same  school  put  upon  the  stage 
the  Antigone  of  Sophocles,  in  the  original  tongue.  The  other  exhibition  of 
skill  and  attainments  to  which  I  allude,  was  at  a  gymnasium  in  Bonn,  and  was  a 
discussion  carried  on  by  the  scholars  of  prima,  under  the  direction  of  Dr. 
Schopen,  one  of  the  teachers.  From  beginning  to  end  the  discussion  was  con¬ 
ducted  in  Latin,  was  carried  on  with  fluency,  and  with  such  accuracy  that  very 
few  corrections  in  the  course  of  two  hours  were  called  for  by  the  professor. 

It  is  a  matter  of  interest  to  us  to  note  that  final  examinations  for  admission 
to  the  university  are  conducted,  not  at  the  university,  but  at  the  gymnasium. 


16 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


O' 


This  custom  is  a  result  of  much  experimenting,  extending  over  the  whole 
period  from  1812  to  1856.  Schleiennacher  was,  from  the  first,  in  favor  of 
having  the  examinations  entirely  with  the  gymnasia ;  but  Humboldt  favored 
taking  them  to  the  university.  Experience,  however,  has  proved  conclusively 
to  those  in  authority  that  the  examinations  are  held  with  best  results  at  the 
gymnasium  ;  and  there,  since  1856,  they  have  uniformly  been  conducted. 

But  the  final  examination  is  a  genuine  test  of  scholarship.  The  examining 
committee  consists  of  the  Director  of  the  gymnasium,  the  teachers  of  prima , 
one  member  of  the  Provincial  School  Board,  and  two  members  of  the  “Joint 
Patronage  Commissary.”  The  law  provides  that  the  examination  shall  be  of 
the  same  severity  as  the  ordinary  work  in  prima ;  but  one  condition  is  note¬ 
worthy,  the  examination  is  not  to  he  on  loork  that  has  been  done  in  school.  The 
examinations  are  to  be  both  by  writing  and  oral.  The  written  examination 
continues  a  week,  and  those  who  fail  in  it  are  excluded  from  the  examination 
viva  voce.  The  tests  in  Latin,  German,  and  French  are  chiefly  by  means  of 
extemporaneous  compositions  in  those  languages.  The  papers  are  marked 
either  “insufficient,”  “sufficient,”  “good,”  or  “excellent.”  At  the  end  of 
the  examination,  the  pupil  is  voted  upon  by  ballot,  and  finally  receives  a 
diploma  marked  either  “ reif ”  or  “ unreif .”  The  papers  are  all  preserved; 
and  an  “unripe”  student  may  appeal  to  the  Highest  Examining  Authority,  in 
which  case  the  examination  papers  are  sent  up  for  inspection.  The  final  exam¬ 
inations  take  place  near  the  end  of  each  semester;  and  the  public  occasion  of 
the  conferring  of  the  diplomas  is  known,  not  as  “Commencement,”  or  “Exhi- 


v 


bition,”  but  as  the  “Solemnity/ 

The  “scholar”  is  nowready  to  become  a  “student.”  The  two  words  in  Ger¬ 
many  have  very  different  significations.  The  scholar  is  kept  under  the  severest 
discipline  until  it  is  believed  his  habits  and  tastes  are  fixed.  The  student,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  regarded  as  having  come  to  mature  years,  to  years  of  discre¬ 
tion,  as  having  completed  his  preliminary  training ;  and,  therefore,  he  is  given 
what  is,  practically,  absolute  liberty.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  or  twenty,  then, 
he  goes  to  the  university.  Here  he  finds  the  organization  of  the  highest  grade 
of  schools  substantially  as  it  was  fixed  by  Humboldt  and  his  colleagues  in  1810. 
There  are  four  or  five  faculties:  one  of  Philosophy,  one  of  Law,  one  of  Medi¬ 
cine,  one  of  Protestant  Theology,  and  sometimes,  in  addition,  one  of  Catholic 
Theology. 

In  each  of  these  faculties  the  instructors  are  divided  into  three  grades  :  Ordi¬ 
nary  Professors,  Extraordinary  Professors,  and  Privat  Docenten.  These  offi¬ 
cers  are  always  appointed  by  the  Ministry  of  Education,  on  the  recommenda¬ 
tion  of  the  university  senate,  the  ministry  selecting  one  from  the  three  per¬ 
sons  nominated  by  the  senate.  The  Ordinary  Professors  constitute  the  Fac¬ 
ulty,  and  each  faculty  has  a  dean  or  presiding  officer,  chosen  from  its  own 
number.  All  the  faculties  acting  together  choose  from  their  own  number  the 
Rector  Magnificus ,  who,  for  one  year,  is  President  of  the  Senate,  and  official 
head  of  the  university.  The  deans  of  all  the  faculties,  together  with  the  uni¬ 
versity  judge,  the  rector,  and  the  pro-rector  (that  is,  the  rector  of  the  preceding 
year),  constitute  the  university  senate, — the  board  for  the  administration  of 
all  matters  of  general  university  interest.  The  university  judge,  always  a 
member  of  the  Faculty  of  Law,  constitutes  the  court  before  whom  all  students 
accused  of  violating  law  are  tried.  The  university  has  its  jail  (career),  and 
its  system  of  fines,  and  testimony  is  taken  according  to  the  rules  of  evidence. 

The  two  characteristics  which  impress  a  foreigner  most  deeply  on  visiting  or 
entering  a  German  university,  are  the  freedom  of  the  professors  and  the  free- 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


17 


dom  of  the  students, — what  the  Germans  call  Lehrfreiheit  and  Lernfreiheit . 
The  freedom  of  the  professors  is  almost  absolute.  Each  is  required  to  deliver 
one  or  two  public  lectures  a  week,  but  that  is  all.  Beyond  that  he  may  lecture 
as  little  as  he  chooses  or  as  much  as  he  chooses,  and  on  any  subject  he  chooses. 
This  freedom  has  its  element  of  safety  in  the  fact  that  for  all  instruction, 
except  the  public  lectures  already  alluded  to  and  perhaps  a  little  very  advanced 
private  work,  the  student  pays  a  fee  that  goes  to  the  professor.  If  the  pro¬ 
fessor  nods  too  often,  or  reads  lectures  that  have  taken  on  too  much  of  the 
smoke  and  veneration  of  age,  the  students  desert  him  and  his  income  is  re¬ 
duced.  While,  therefore,  there  is  no  requirement ,  there  is  every  inducement  to 
industry.  A  still  further  guarantee  against  dullness  and  indolence  on  the  part 
of  the  professors  is,  that,  close  behind  him,  there  is  a  vigorous  corps  of  ambitious 
young  teachers  who  enjoy  the  same  liberties  accorded  to  him,  and  who,  there¬ 
fore,  are  sure  to  draw  away  his  students  if  his  lectures  cease  to  be  of  value. 
The  system  of  privat  docenten  is  unquestionably  one  of  the  most  important 
elements  of  university  thoroughness  and  success.  Some  of  the  most  careful 
observers  regard  it  as  the  key  to  the  whole  excellence  of  the  German  univer¬ 
sity  education. 

A  word  in  explanation  of  the  system  may  not  be  out  of  place.  It  is  this: 
If  a  student,  at  the  time  of  completing  Ins  university  studies,  has  shown 
superior  excellence,  and  has  manifested  a  desire  to  devote  himself  to  univer¬ 
sity  teaching  as  a  profession,  he  receives  what  is  called  a  facultas  docendi.  This 
is  simply  a  privilege  of  lecturing  in  the  university.  When  he  has  received 
this  he  may  lecture  on  any  conceivable  subject.  He  receives  no  pay  from  the 
university.  He  must  rely  exclusively  on  his  ability  to  draw  students,  and  to 
get  money  from  them  in  the  way  of  fees,  for  his  income.  The  university 
puts  upon  him  this  simple  limitation  :  he  is  not  allowed  to  sell  his  wares 
cheaper  than  the  full  professors  sell  theirs, — is  not  permitted  to  receive 
smaller  fees  than  the  others,  the  rates  of  which  are  determined  by  the  uni¬ 
versity  senate.  The  attendance  at  the  lectures  of  the  privat  docenten  is 
usually  small ;  sometimes  it  is  limited  to  two  or  three  persons;  sometimes  even 
courses  are  announced  at  which  not  a  single  student  appears.  All  these  facts 
are  constantly  giving  hints,  of  course,  to  the  docen' ,  as  to  what  is  wanted  by 
the  students.  In  general  the  lectures  of  a  renowned  professor  are  preferred. 
A  docent,  for  example,  would  find  it  hard  to  get  students  in  Physics  in  compe¬ 
tition  with  Helmholtz,  or  in  Philology  in  competition  with  Ourtius.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  docent  offers  some  advantages,  lie  can  give  more  individ¬ 
ual  attention  to  his  students.  He  is  not  yet  removed  completely  from  the  stu¬ 
dent  world.  He  goes  to  the  old  resorts  with  the  students  themselves.  He  eats 
with  them,  drinks  with  them,  is,  in  short,  in  a  condition  to  render  such  prac¬ 
tical  assistance  to  a  student  as  a  professor  could  not.  In  this  manner  the 
docent  pushes  himself  on.  If  he  does  not  succeed,  his  lot  is  like  that  of  fail¬ 
ure  elsewhere;  but  as  no  students  are  obliged  to  hear  him,  the  mischief  falls 
chiefly  upon  himself.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  successful  as  an  author  and 
lecturer,  as  soon  as  his  success  is  pronounced,  he  is  likely  to  be  called  to  a  pro¬ 
fessorship  either  in  his  own  or  in  some  other  university.  In  the  position  of 
privat  docent  the  spurs  of  nearly  all  the  great  men  now  in  professors’  chairs  in 
Germany  have  been  earned.  The  system  affords  an  admirable  example  of  a 
thorouglily  organized  method  of  competition  and  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Appointments  to  professorships  are  permanent,  and  removals  never  take  place 


but  for  most 


flagrant 

u 


reasons.  Professors,  therefore,  feel  secure  in  their 


v 


o 


18 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


seats,  and  exercise  freedom  of  opinion  with  absolute  and  often  startling  inde¬ 
pendence.  The  universal  maxim  seems  to  be  that  intellectual  integrity  is  the 
basis  of  all  true  development.  Therefore,  in  Germany,  what  a  professor 
thinks,  that  ho  is  expected  to  say. 

The  number  of  courses  of  lectures  given  at  the  University  of  Berlin  in  each 
semester  is  about  four  hundred.  In  the  first  term  of  last  year  there  were,  in 
Theology,  thirty-six  courses;  in  Law,  sixty-two;  in  Medicine,  one  hundred  and 
ten;  and  in  Philosophy,  one  hundred  and  seventy-five.  During  the  year,  then, 
no  less  than  about  eight  hundred  courses  are  ottered  at  this  one  University, 
from  which  the  student  can  freely  make  his  choice. 

But  a  very  few  moments  remain  to  me  for  what  I  have  to  say  of  student 
life  in  Germany. 

The  German  student  is  a  person  of  a  very  different  nature  from  the  old- 
fashioned  American  student.  I  say  the  old-fashioned  student,  because  I  am 
convinced  that  a  rapid  transformation  is  taking  place  in  student  life  in  this 
country.  The  student  of  former  days  was  simply  a  school-boy  of  a  larger 
growth.  But  it  is  simple  truth  to  say,  and  it  is  a  great  source  of  satisfaction 
to  observe  and  to  recognize  the  fact,  that,  in  ten  years,  students  in  the  Univer¬ 
sity  of  Michigan  have  made  a  great  advance  in  the  direction  of  better  order 
and  a  higher  manhood.  All  sympathy  for  the  old  days  of  college  pranks  is 
coming  to  be  recognized  as  a  sympathy  for  barbarism;  and  it  is  safe  to  assert 
that  we  are  fast  leaving  behind  us  the  time  when  a  student  can  be  a  rowdv 
without  being  a  social  outcast.  I  am  persuaded  that  this  change  is  the  result 
very  largely,  if  not  entirely,  of  the  recent  advances  that  have  been  made  in 
several  of  our  larger  universities,  and  especially  in  the  University  of  Michi¬ 
gan,  toward  the  liberties  accorded  to  students  in  the  universities  of  Germany. 
A  study  of  different  institutions  would  probably  reveal  the  fact  that,  in  those 
colieges  where  the  old  methods  have  been  rigorously  adhered  to,  the  improve¬ 
ment  has  been  very  slight;  while  the  introduction  of  larger  privileges  of  elec¬ 
tion  has  everywhere  been  followed  by  a  more  healthy  and  manly  tone  of  ear¬ 
nestness  and  scholarship.  The  explanation  of  the  fact  is  easy.  While  well 
regulated  liberties  encourage  good  order,  too  many  restraints  provoke  lawless¬ 
ness.  Goethe,  with  that  profound  insight  into  human  nature  which  was  one 
of  his  most  striking  characteristics,  put  the  explanation  into  the  mouth  of 
Wilhelm  Meister :  “In  well  adjusted  and  regulated  homes, ”  said  he,  “chil¬ 
dren  have  a  feeling  not  unlike  what  I  conceive  rats  and  mice  to  have;  they 
keep  a  sharp  eye  on  all  crevices  and  holes  where  they  may  come  upon  some 
forbidden  dainty.  They  enjoy  it  also  with  a  fearful  stolen  satisfaction  which 
forms  no  small  part  of  the  happiness  of  childhood.”  And  the  characteristic 
so  well  described  by  Goethe  is  not  confined  to  very  young  children.  It  is  un¬ 
questionably  true  that  even  adult  human  nature  experiences  a  delicious  satis¬ 
faction  in  outwitting  those  who  are  believed  to  have  imposed  irksome  and  need¬ 
less  restraints.  When  monks  were  forbidden  to  look  upon  women,  and  nuns 
were  forbidden  to  look  upon  men,  monasteries  and  nunneries  became  what  they 
were  represented  to  be  by  the  Italian  literature  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

-✓Men  and  boys  will  not  be  kept  out  of  the  water  by  being  told  that  certain 
waters  lead  to  Niagara.  If  it  is  not  courage  itself,  it  is  something  akin  to 
courage,  that  leads  great  natures  to  dare  that  which  is  dangerous,  and 
which  accomplishes  great  results.  Say  to  a  group  of  boys,  “That  cliff 
yonder  is  dangerous,  and  you  must  not  approach  it,”  your  young  Napol¬ 
eons  and  Cromwells  and  Clives  and  Luthers  and  Wesleys  will  probably  be  at 
the  top  of  it  the  next  morning  before  you  are  up.  And  society  is  in  a  wrong 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


19 


condition  which  condemns  them  as  hopelessly  lost  because  of  their  superabund¬ 
ance  of  human  nature. 

It  is  these  considerations,  doubtless,  that  afford  the  explanation  of  what  has 
often  been  a  puzzle.  The  saddest  and  most  disheartening  experience  of  a  col¬ 
lege  professor  is  probably  that  which  comes  to  him  when  he  sees,  as  he  some¬ 
times  does,  full-grown  and  full-bearded  men  forgetting  the  avowed  object  of 
their  university  life,  and  devoting  the  full  energies  of  their  maturity  to  trivial 
pastimes  and  trickeries  that  are  scarcely  worthy  of  pupils  of  half  their  years. 
x\nd  yet,  whenever  this  full-grown  and  full-bearded  youth  is  separated  from  his 
fellows  and  interrogated,  he  is  generally  found  to  be  a  reasonable  human 
being,  and  one  free  from  vicious  purposes,  if  not,  indeed,  inspired  with  correct 
ideals.  But,  what  is  equally  important,  it  will  also  be  found  that  he  is  chafi ng 
under  restraints  and  requirements  and  restrictions  and  usages  that  are  imposed 
upon  men  of  his  age  in  no  other  relation  of  life.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  that  in' 
this  country,  the  most  prominent  characteristic  of  which  is  supposed  to  be 
freedom,  the  university  student,  up  to  within  the  last  ten  years,  and,  in  many 
quarters,  even  up  to  the  present  time,  has  enjoyed  less  of  freedom  than  the 
university  student  of  any  other  country  in  the  world.  It  is  also  worthy  of  note, 
that,  in  no  other  country,  have  the  students,  to  such  an  extent,  carried  up  into 
manhood  the  unworthy  and  mischievous  trivialities  of  childhood.  Reason,  as 
well  as  the  fruitful  experience  of  the  last  ten  years,  goes  to  show  that  these 
two  facts  will  stand  and  fall  together. 

I  have  been  led  to  these  reflections  by  the  sharp  contrast  between  the  German 
student  at  the  university  and  the  student  in  a  similar  position  in  America. 
The  ages  of  the  two  are  about  the  same.  But  the  German  is  in  every  way 
taught  to  feel  that  he  has  ended  his  childhood  and  has  begun  his  manhood. 
He  is  now  free  and  is  henceforth  to  work  for  nobody  but  himself.  He  is  no 
longer  to  be  marked  for  good  or  bad  recitations,  is  no  longer  to  be  subjected 
to  grading  or  surveillance  of  any  kind.  He  feels  himself  a  free  man.  He  can 
select  his  studies,  his  professors,  his  hours;  can  hear  lectures  from  eight  in  the 
morning  to  six  at  night,  or,  if  he  choose,  he  can  hear  absolutely  none  at  all. 
He  knows  that  there  is  no  rector  or  dean  or  professor  to  trouble  himself  about 
him;  to  care  whether  he  ‘•'cuts”  regularly  or  not  at  all,  whether  he  fights  a 
duel  every  week  or  never,  or  even  whether  he  goes  to  bed  sober  or  drunk.  All 
that  is  entirely  his  own  affair.  He  knows  that  henceforth  his  destiny  is  in  his 
own  hands,  and  in  his  alone.  What  is  the  consequence?  The  Primaner,  or, 
as  the  students  generally  call  him,  the  Fuchs, — what  we  should  call  the  Fresh¬ 
man, — is  often  wild.  He  is  experiencing  the  first  delicious  sense  of  freedom. 
He  has  had  ten  years  of  hard  work,  during  the  last  three  or  four  or  which  he 
has  worked  up  to  his  full  capacity,  tie  has  been  borne  down  to  the  water’s 
edge.  He  has  had  scarcely  a  day  that  he  could  call  his  own.  lie  now  feels  an 
inclination  to  let  his  mind  lie  fallow  awhile.  He  is  restless.  He  visits  the 
lecture  rooms  of  all  the  professors  in  the  university.  He  annoys  his  landlady 
by  giving  up  his  room  for  other  quarters.  He  has  much  of  the  verdancy  of  an 
old-fashioned  freshman,  added  to  something  of  the  bravado  of  an  old-fashioned 
sophomore.  If,  in  addition  to  his  mental  outfit,  he  has  a  good  deal  of  physi¬ 
cal  exuberance,  he  is  likely  to  join  a  corps,  or  a  verb  inching.  He  perhaps 
drinks  heavily,  and  in  that  curious  kind  of  sword  practice  not  very  correctly 
called  a  duel,  sets  his  face  scarred  a  few  times  by  older  and  more  skillful 
swordsmen. 

But  after  a  short  period  this  spurt  of  folly  generally  wears  away.  If  the  stu- 


20 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  GERMANY. 


dent  has  the  making  of  a  man  in  him,  he  gradually  abandons  his  excesses  and 
settles  down  to  hard  work.  It  is  said  even  that  the  roll  of  professors  and  docents , 
as  well  as  of  the  eminent  men  in  all  the  walks  of  life,  shows  a  very  large  pro¬ 
portion  of  persons  who  were  given  to  wild  excesses  during  the  first  months  of 
their  University  career. 

But  here  again  is  a  marked  difference  between  the  American  student  and 
the  German.  Our  student,  if  lie  resorts  to  places  of  public  amusement  for  his 
recreation,  is  unquestionably  in  real  danger.  He  seems  to  have  left  behind 
him  all  sense  of  restraint  when  he  crossed  the  threshold.  But  not  so  with  the 
German.  He  is  still  in  company  with  those  whose  character  and  conduct  he 
respects.  He  has  the  same  reasons  for  conducting  himself  properly  that  he 
has  on  the  street  or  in  polite  society.  He  seldom  forgets  that  his  vocation  is 
one  of  dignity.  Students,  therefore,  are  uniformly  deferential  toward  one 
another.  Every  hour  thousands  of  students  are  emptied  from  the  lecture 
rooms  into  the  narrow  corridors  of  the  University  of  Berlin,  but  the  order  is  as 
perfect  as  that  of  a  congregation  passing  from  a  church.  If  one  were  to  jostle 
another  without  an  immediate  and  satisfactory  apology,  the  act  would  be 
regarded  as  a  gross  infraction  of  that  line  code  of  deference  which  universally 
prevails.  They  are  not  very  scrupulous  about  dress;  but  they  allow  no  per¬ 
sonal  familiarities  or  disparaging  personal  remarks.  It  is  true  that  the  most 
intimate  friends,  on  meeting,  embrace  and  kiss  each  other;  but  they  do  it  in 
a  very  gentlemanly,  or,  perhaps  I  ought  to  say,  in  a  very  lady-like  way. 

But  1  must  bring  this  discussion  to  a  close.  It  remains  only  to  add  that  the 
German  system  of  education,  at  once  the  most  carefully  designed,  the  most 
comprehensive,  and  the  most  efficient  the  world  has  ever  known,  has  borne 
fruits  worthy  of  its  intrinsic  excellence.  Within  the  present  generation  we 
have  had  abundant  evidence  of  the  way  in  which  it  developed  the  resources 
of  the  nation  in  all  the  manifold  forms  of  literature,  science,  art,  and  action. 
On  the  one  hand  Germany  has  become  the  educational  Mecca,  toward  which 
all  those  who  seek  the  best  that  the  world  has  to  give  must  make  their  way; 
while,  on  the  other,  the  fragments  that  seemed  hopelessly  scattered  and  separ¬ 
ated  have  been  brought  together,  and  bound  into  a  living  organism  that  throbs 
with  the  pulsations  of  a  vigorous  political  life.  One  of  the  princes  who  fleshed 
his  sword  at  Waterloo,  and  saw  his  queen-mother  die  of  a  broken  heart,  be¬ 
cause  Prussia  seemed  hopelessly  crushed,  lived  not  only  to  be  crowned  king  of 
the  most  powerful  nation  of  Europe,  but  also  to  be  hailed  as  emperor  of  a 
united  German  people.  And  thus  the  most  sanguine  hopes  of  Fichte  and 
and  Humboldt  have  been  more  than  fulfilled. 


I 


* 


. 


- 


X 


